Andrew Jackson Davis Biography

Birth: August 11, 1826 in Blooming Grove, New York, United
States

Death: January 13, 1910

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Medium, channel, and one of the founders of modern
Spiritualism. He was born August 11, 1826, at Blooming Grove,
Orange County, New York. Young Davis had gifts of clairvoyance and
heard voices at an early age. On advice so obtained he pursuaded
his father in 1838 to move to Poughkeepsie, New York (Andrew would
later be known as "the Poughkeepsie Seer''). Up to age 16 he
received no formal education. Apprenticed to a shoemaker named
Armstrong, he worked at the trade for two years.

In 1843 Dr. J. S. Grimes, professor of jurisprudence in
the Castleton Medical College, visited the city and delivered a
series of lectures on mesmerism. Davis attended and was tried as a
subject with no result. Later, a local tailor, William Livingston,
made fresh attempts; he threw Davis into "magnetic sleep'' and
discovered that in this state the human body became transparent to
Davis's eyes, enabling him to give accurate diagnosis of
disease.

In 1844 Davis had a strange experience that was to have
an enduring effect on his life. In a state of semitrance he
wandered away from home and awoke the next morning 40 miles away
in the mountains. There he claimed to have met two venerable
men--whom he later identified as the ancient physician Galen and
the Swedish seer Emanuel Swedenborg--and experienced a state of
mental illumination.

He began teaching and published a small pamphlet,
Lectures on Clairmativeness, about the mysteries of human
magnetism and electricity. He did not include this pamphlet among
his later works but explained in his Autobiography that the title
was meant to be Clairlativeness.

During a professional tour he met a Dr. Lyon, a Bridgeport
musician, and the Reverend William Fishbough. Lyon was appointed
his magnetizer (i.e., mesmerist) and Fishbough his scribe. With
their assistance, in November 1845 Davis began to dictate his
great work, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and
a Voice to Mankind. The dictation lasted for 15 months. Lyon
repeated each trance utterance, and Fishbough transcribed them.
They both insisted that except for grammatical corrections they
performed no editing. During the dictation, the sole means of
livelihood for the trio was the seer's earning power in giving
medical diagnoses. When this proved insufficient the lady whom
Davis later married came to their assistance.

There were many enthusiastic witnesses to the delivery of
the dictation. Dr. George Bush, professor of Hebrew at the
University of New York, declared that he heard Davis correctly
quote Hebrew. The seer's good faith was also established by his
answers to impromptu questions put to him as tests while he was in
the clairvoyant state. Bush said, "Taken as a whole the work is a
profound and elaborate discussion of the philosophy of the
universe, and for grandeur of conception, soundness of principle,
clearness of illustration, order of arrangement and encyclopaedic
range of subjects, I know no work of any single mind that will
bear away from it the palm.''

It was partly due to Bush's enthusiasm that the book,
published in 1847, was received with such interest. Within a few
weeks of its appearance, however, Bush published a pamphlet,
Davis' Revelations Revealed, warning the public against being
misled by the numerous errors, absurdities, and falsities
contained in Davis's work. It was clear to him, he said, that
Davis, although apparently an honest and singlehearted young man,
had been made the mouthpiece of uninstructive and deceiving
spirits. This rapid change of opinion was later explained by Frank
Podmore in his book Modern Spiritualism (1902) as stemming from
the seer's attitude toward Christianity in the section of the book
on divine revelations, which Bush probably did not read in advance
and which contradicted Davis's views as expressed in his Lectures
on Clairmativeness.

The book soon went through many editions, which testified
to the appeal of the style and the remarkable qualities of this
extraordinary work. This opening passage about the Creation is an
example:

"In the beginning the Univercoelum was one boundless,
undefinable, and unimaginable ocean of Liquid Fire. The most
vigorous and ambitious imagination is not capable of forming an
adequate conception of the height and depth and length and breadth
thereof. There was one vast expanse of liquid substance. It was
without bounds--inconceivable--and with qualities and essences
incomprehensible. This was the original condition of Matter. It
was without forms, for it was but one Form. It had not motions,
but it was an eternity of Motion. It was without parts, for it was
a Whole. Particles did not exist, but the Whole was as one
Particle. There were not suns, but it was one Eternal Sun. It had
no beginning and it was without end. It had not circles, for it
was one Infinite Circle. It had not disconnected power, but it was
the very essence of all Power. Its inconceivable magnitude and
constitution were such as not to develop forces, but Omnipotent
Power.

"Matter and Power were existing as a Whole, inseparable. The
Matter contained the substance to produce all suns, all worlds,
and systems of worlds, throughout the immensity of Space. It
contained the qualities to produce all things that are existing
upon each of those worlds. The Power contained Wisdom and
Goodness, Justice, Mercy and Truth. It contained the original and
essential Principle that is displayed throughout immensity of
Space, controlling worlds and systems of worlds, and producing
Motion, Life, Sensation and Intelligence, to be impartially
disseminated upon their surfaces as Ultimates.''

The first part of the book is the exposition of a
mystical philosophy, the second reviews the books of the Old
Testament, contests their infallibility, and describes Christ as a
great moral reformer but not divine. The third advances a system
of socialism.

The originality of the book as a whole was never
contested. Bush, however, pointed out a strange coincidence. The
revelations, for the most part, express views similar to Emanuel
Swedenborg's; the language is in several cases "all but absolutely
verbal [verbatim],'' and there is a striking similarity to
Swedenborg's book The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, a few English
copies of which had just reached the United States.

Bush used this as an argument for Davis's supernatural powers,
because it was doubtful the book could have reached him. In fact,
Davis believed he was controlled by Swedenborg while he produced
the book. In his publication Mesmer and Swedenborg (1847) Bush
printed a letter from Davis accompanying a paper written in a cave
near Poughkeepsie, on June 15, 1846. The paper accurately quoted
long passages from Swedenborg's Earths in the Universe. Bush was
satisfied that Davis had never heard of the book, but it is
difficult to believe that Davis had not read it.

An apparently more serious charge could have been leveled
against Davis's The Great Harmonia (1852). There are long passages
in the book that correspond with the text of Sunderland's
Pathetism (1847). But even Frank Podmore, a noted skeptic,
believed that Davis could not have copied these passages and that
the explanation lay in an extraordinary memory.

The statements concerning astronomy in the divine revelations
section of The Principles of Nature are revealing. In March 1846,
when the existence of an eighth planet was yet an astronomical
supposition (the discovery of Neptune, verifying Leverrier's
calculations, did not take place until September 1846), the book
spoke of nine planets. The density of the eighth planet as given
by Davis agreed with later findings. (The ninth planet, Pluto, was
discovered in 1933.) On the other hand, Davis spoke of four
planetoids--Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta--whereas there are now
believed to be hundreds. He also said that the solar system
revolves around a great center together with all the other stars.
Davis further believed Saturn to be inhabited by a more advanced
humanity than ours, Jupiter and Mars were also inhabited, and on
Venus and Mercury the development of humanity was less advanced
than on Earth. The three outer planets he declared lifeless.

His prediction of the coming of Spiritualism was often
quoted:

"It is a truth that spirits commune with one another while one
is in the body and the other in the higher spheres--and this, too,
when the person in the body is unconscious of the influx, and
hence cannot be convinced of the fact; and this truth will ere
long present itself in the form of a living demonstration. And the
world will hail with delight the ushering-in that era when the
interiors of men will be opened, and the spiritual communion will
be established such as is now being enjoyed by the inhabitants of
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.''

In his notes dated March 31, 1848, the following statement
occurs: "About daylight this morning a warm breathing passed over
my face and I heard a voice, tender and strong, saying: `Brother,
the good work has begun--behold, a living demonstration is born.'
I was left wondering what could be meant by such a message.''

The publication of The Principals of Nature made Davis famous
and he was soon surrounded by a band of enthusiasts. As their
mouthpiece, on December 4, 1847, the first issue of the
Univercoelum (apparently coined from Swedenborg's "universum
coelum'') appeared. Universalist minister S. B. Brittan became
editor in chief. Assisting were a number of outstanding
contemporaries, including Fishbough, Thomas Lake Harris, W. M.
Fernald, J. K. Ingalls, Dr. Chivers, and Frances Green. The object
of the publication was "the establishment of a universal system of
truth, the reform and the reorganization of society.'' Davis
contributed many articles that were later incorporated into The
Great Harmonia.

After 12 months in existence, the Univercoelum absorbed the
Christian Rationalist, a similar organ, however, its publication
came to an end in July 1849. It was succeeded by W. M. Channing's
The Present Age, a largely socialist organ to which Davis and his
friends no longer contributed. They accepted as their new
mouthpiece The Spirit Messenger of Springfield, Massachusetts,
which was jointly edited by Rev. R. P. Ambler and Apollos Munn. As
Davis's friends were scattered, other periodicals were founded and
his "harmonial philosophy'' was independently carried on.

About the time the Univercoelum was founded, Davis disposed of
the services of his mesmerizer. By an effort of will he could by
that time throw himself into what he called "the superior
condition.'' He also remembered his experiences while in trance
and wrote his subsequent books in his own hand. He disclaimed
dictation by the spirits and said that he could write them by a
process of inner perception. Except for seeing apparitions, he was
unacquainted with abnormal physical phenomena until 1850, when he
paid a visit to Dr. Eliakim Phelps's house in Stratford,
Connecticut, which was the scene of violent poltergeist
disturbances. In the same year he published a pamphlet on his
observations, entitled The Philosophy of Spiritual
Intercourse.

Davis's teachings left a deep impression on his age. The Great
Harmonia passed through 40 editions. His autobiography The Magic
Staff extended only to the year 1857, but was later supplemented
with a sequel, Beyond the Valley (1885). In 1860 he started the
Herald of Progress, a weekly that absorbed the Spiritual
Telegraph. In the late years of his life he had a small bookshop
in Boston. There he sold books and, having earned a degree in
natural medicine, prescribed herbal remedies for his patients.

Davis died January 13, 1910. He was an important influence in
the early development of Spiritualism, particularly in his
association of mediumistic revelations with religious principles.
His concepts of after-death spheres for departed spirits, which he
named "Summerland,'' are still part of the beliefs of many modern
Spiritualists. He influenced most subsequent Spiritualist
movements, including those of Thomas Lake Harris. It even seems
possible that Edgar Allan Poe's "Eureka'' owes its inception to
Davis's Principles of Nature.

In his practice of diagnosing and treating illness in a trance
condition, Davis also anticipated the rationale of the modern seer
Edgar Cayce.

Other Biographical Treatments

Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature. British
and American authors living and deceased from the earliest
accounts to the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Three
volumes. By S. Austin Allibone. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott,
1858-1871.

Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature: A
Supplement. British and American authors. Two volumes. By John
Foster Kirk. Philadelphia:J.B. Lippincott, 1891.

American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A.
Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press,
1999.

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. First
edition. Edited by George Perkins, Barbara Perkins, and Phillip
Leininger. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

The Bibliophile Dictionary. A biographical record of the great
authors, with bibliographical notices of their principal works
from the beginning of history. Originally published as Volumes 29
and 30 of The Bibliophile Library of Literature, Art, and Rare
Manuscripts. Compiled and arranged by Nathan Haskell Dole, Forrest
Morgan, and Caroline Ticknor. New York: International Bibliophile
Society, 1904.

A Dictionary of American Authors. Fifth edition, revised and
enlarged. By Oscar Fay Adams. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1904. Biographies are found in the 'Dictionary of American
Authors' section which begins on page 1 and in the 'Supplement'
which begins on page 441.

A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950.
Compiled by W. Stewart Wallace. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951.

Divining the Future. Prognostication from astrology to
zoomancy. By Eva Shaw. New York: Facts on File, 1995.

Drake's Dictionary of American Biography. Including men of the
time, containing nearly 10,000 notices of persons of both sexes,
of native and foreign birth, who have been remarkable, or
prominently connected with the arts, sciences, literature,
politics, or history, of the American continent. By Francis S.
Drake. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1872.

The Encyclopedia of American Religious History. Two volumes. By
Edward L. Queen II, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck,
Jr. New York: Facts on File, 1996. Use the Index to locate
biographies.

The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. By
Arthur S. Berger and Joyce Berger. New York: Paragon House,
1991.